Bullion & Business Weekend Report – July 25

Precious metals prices were higher for the second straight week but no explosive breakouts were seen, although silver jumped nearly 5 percent in London and 3.6 percent in New York. As for gold, a weaker U.S. dollar and rising crude-oil prices helped support the yellow metal through most of the week.

U.S. stocks finished mixed on Friday, but they jumped 4 percent this week on better than expected earnings reports. European stocks gained for the second straight week.

Gold was fixed at $951.50 an ounce, an increase of $14.00 for the week.

Platinum soared to $1186.00 an ounce, rising $21 for the week.

"The yellow metal and the greenback have been executing a cheek-to-cheek close tango for the past couple of weeks now, and weakness in the latter has translated into persistent bumping-ups against the $957 resistance area in the former," wrote Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco Metals Inc.

"We are still up here in quite a high range. We don’t see any physical buying coming in at these levels, but what is supporting it is the dollar," Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital, was quoted on Reuters. "The dollar’s weakness and the idea that inflation expectations are on the rise are holding gold here."

Gold, considered a hedge during times of high inflation and economic uncertainty, tends to follow oil and move opposite to the U.S. dollar. A rising greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities, like bullion, more expensive for holders of other world currencies.

London Fix Charts: Silver, Gold and Platinum
(July 17-24)

The London Fix is one of the most used bullion quotes around the world. The London AM fix for gold and platinum begins at 10:30am GMT (5:30am in New York), and the PM fix begins at 3pm GMT (10am in New York). The London Fix for silver begins each business day at 12pm GMT (7am in New York).

Watchmen or Transformers – Who Will Rule? – Jon Nadler, Kitco
A small overnight dip to $945 in gold prices gave way to a fairly quick recovery in same, as the US dollar took a more substantial 0.34 point hit on Friday morning and fell to 78.63 on the trade-weighted index. The yellow metal and the greenback have been executing a cheek-to-cheek close tango…

Silver Proof Sets and Eagles Sail, Gold UHR’s Top 70,000 – CoinNews
What a difference a week can make. Collectors partially awoke from a summer slumber and began to buy US coins. Ultra High Relief $20 Gold coins surpassed 70,000, newly released 2009 Silver Proof Sets reached 271,372 in three days, American Eagle Silver bullion coins topped 15.8 million, and demand was higher for the remaining US Mint silver coins…

First Spouse Gold Coin Sales – July 22 – First Spouse Coins
US Mint First Spouse Gold Coin sales were mostly on par with typical summer figures of late — there was no coin to really brag about… Again leaders from a pure numbers stand point were Letitia Tyler First Spouse Coins issued July 2. Proof and uncirculated options increased by 376 and 173, respectively…

Silver Eagles Strong, Gold Eagles Climb – Coin Sales Figures
US bullion coin demand over the past week remained strong as American Silver Eagles approached a total of 16 million sold for the year and American Gold Eagles hit 726,500. Silver eagles equaled their stunning performance pace with the same 800,000 jump as the prior week. Gold eagles performed better, rising by 26,500 compared to the previous 17,500…

World business news; oil, gasoline, and stocks prices

Oil gained Friday and prices were higher for the second straight week "as a weaker dollar and resilient U.S. stocks boosted prices while worries continued that oil’s recent run-up can’t be justified by energy-market fundamentals," writes Moming Zhou and Polya Lesova of MarketWatch.

New York crude-oil for September delivery rose 89 cents, or 1.3 percent, on Friday to close at $63.56 a barrel — an increase of $4.49, or 7.1 percent, when comparing front-month contracts. Oil gained 6.1 percent in the prior week.

In a continuing three day trend, the national average on Friday for unleaded gasoline inched up to $2.470 a gallon, according to AAA. The price is a half cent more than Thursday, 1.1 cents less than a week ago, 20.6 cents down from a month back, and $1.56 lower than a year ago.

U.S. stocks finished mixed, but soared for another week as the Dow jumped 4.0 percent, the S&P surged 4.1 percent, and the Nasdaq gained 4.2 percent. Week-ending figures for the three major US indexes follow:

The Dow rose 23.95 points to close at 9,093.24.

The S&P 500 climbed 2.97 points, closing to 979.26.

The NASDAQ fell 7.64 points to finish at 1,965.96.

And in other world markets:

The German DAX fell 17.92 points to close at 5,229.36.

The Paris CAC 40 declined 7.27 points to close at 3,366.45.

And the London FTSE 100 advanced 16.81 points to close at 4,576.61.

The stock market rally caught many investors by surprise. Carmen Roberts reports on this and other business news of the week in the following Reuters video.

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The economist types keep saying how the US dollar affects the price of Crude, but I don’t think it is as one way as that. What would happen to the US dollar if OPEC decided to double the price of their oil? Would the dollar then still be the dominant factor?